I'm looking to build a Linux PC. It will be my first build and I'm not even sure where to start. I don't have much experience with computers. I know what I want but also know my budget is $350. I live in the south east USA. Here is a list of what I have parts wise.
4 GB of DDR2: 2 sticks of 1gb Supper Talent and 2 sticks of 1gb ProMOS.
A 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.1
A 120GB OWC Mercury Electra G3 SSD
A DVD/CD Rewritable drive
A SD Card reader
I also have keyboard, mouse and monitor.(not pictured)
What I need this rig to do.
it will need to run Ubuntu 14.04 for simple word processing(LibreOffice), Music and Picture management, Music player(Amarok) Web-browsing, GBA and DS emulation(Smoothly) but I will have no other gaming needs.
Future needs/wants: A possible switch to or dual boot of Arch Linux and some room for memory and speed growth. I want it to last a few years before I build a bigger work horse.
Keep in mind I don't have to use the parts listed above. That is just a list of parts on hand at my disposal. I also will be using an Ethernet exclusively not Wi-Fi.
I'm using an Acer laptop running Ubuntu 14.04 with AMD C-50 Processor × 2, Gallium 0.4 on AMD PALM (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.6.0), 6gb of ram and 320gb hard drive.
It is slow but I realize it is almost 12years old.
Any help, direction will be appreciated.
Thanks Amissus
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If you aim to keep the DDR2, for board/CPU I'd suggest a AM2+ board with a 790 series chipset and maybe a higher end Phenom II x4.
Mind you though that'll you'll miss out on stuff that's considered common day now like USB3 and SATA 6Gbps.
I'd suggest flogging the RAM for what you can on fleabay, and get some cheap DDR3 with a FM2+ APU setup. You'll be up to speed feature set wise with a speedy quad processor, and graphics capabilities that are decent for emulation.
Something like this, where you just add in your drives: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/xWMjpb
Stop!
I don't know what you currently have for a computer, but just take whatever money you'd spend and buy more memory for your main computer. Throw the drives in it, and run a VM.
DDR2 is useless and too old. You only have 2GB anyway.
Anyway, I've seen whole computers with at least 4GB on craigs list for $50 or less that would outperform anything DDR2 based.
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Thanks for the parts picker link. I'm getting rid of the DD2.
My laptop is not feasibly upgradeable at this time. I'll look at raising my budget if necessary.
I have a place to start that helps.
Thanks for the responses
Amissus
I would probably do something like this
http://pcpartpicker.com/list/qHxXvV
You have a good budget and I would say that will get you a reasonably good APU build if you opt for a FM2+ Motherboard with 4GB DDR3 Memory, a basic case and 400W 80+ bronze psu will help you install all those drives you have.
here is a nice FM2+ board, you can look at similar ones too: https://www.amazon.com/A68HM-K-HD7000-PCI-Express-Motherboard-ASUSA68HM-K/dp/B00P6P6Z9O/ref=sr_1_7?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1470475754&sr=1-7&refinements=p_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A2057457011%2Cp_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A6323338011
This is a good quality powersupply: https://www.amazon.com/WHITE-Warranty-Power-Supply-100-W1-0430-KR/dp/B00H33SDR4/ref=pd_bxgy_147_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=FZK8KPDH50T2VD4RAMXY
Here is a capable APU: https://www.amazon.com/AMD-A8-7650K-Radeon-Graphics-AD765KXBJASBX/dp/B01C8CI0TK/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1470475903&sr=1-1&refinements=p_n_feature_fourteen_browse-bin%3A2057441011%2Cp_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A9697949011
The benefit of an APU is that it has a built in graphics processor therefore you will be able to plug in your monitor directly to the motherboard without needing a dedicated graphics card. This particular model of APU is more than sufficient being a quad core also and will run your Linux system at very nice speeds.
Another option is an 8320e with a cheap MB, any cheap nvidea card and 8 gig of cheap ram. My old gt 520 silient flew on linux.
There is also a review of the skylake pentium g4400 at phronix here:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel-pentium-g4400&num=1
difficulty with an AM3+ cpu and motherboard combo is that he may have to get a dedicated gpu with an am3 board and that would spike the costs up quite a bit. I think the thread said 350ish? for the budget.. with an apu build and one focused on Linux also he can do it half that amount and have a great little machine.
I've been playing with the PcPartPicker tool and I've have the same plan as Dread_Emperor but just a case change.
Thanks to all of you. I will update after I get the parts and start the physical build.
Amissus
http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mramissus/saved/QnHfrH
I chose a case upgrade for the filters, noise reduction and space for later upgrades/rebuilds.
Feedback is welcome and again Thanks.
Totally agree, however it was already recommended. The 8 core is great if he likes having 15 or 20 tabs while browsing with 4 other programs open.
Another reason is have have 2 APU builds at home,7850k and 7870k and I LOVE them. I have played Crysis 3, BF4 and Star Wars on it (barefoot, no gpu) and for 6 months it was my primary gaming rig.
The 7870k is my kids build and after 6 months I threw in an r7 250 for dual graphics. Handles Fallout 4 like a champ. I found a great deal on an Antec case with a 380 watt PSU open box for under 50 bucks cause of a small scratch. I bench tested both with an old 220 watt emachines OEM PSU.
AMD has VASTLY improved there stock cpu coolers so I would stay with stock unless your overclocking. You can always upgrade later and they make silent coolers depending on your case and hearing. I did a miny review of my Gamex 400, forgot to mention the pretty blue lights and it works great but installation is a pain.
Either way you'll be very happy I think. These APU's are awesome lil chips. Linux Mint worked great on the 7850k and the open source graphics driver worked great. The early radeon proprietary driver just brought pain.
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My last build was an 860k on an FM2+ board with an R7260x and it played games really well at 1080p.
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What you could do is to look around ebay for used office PCs . You can find some good deals on eBay, and with the parts you have (besides the ddr2) it will be really good. like this on: http://www.ebay.com/itm/331864214050
and if you need a dGPU, heres a decent cheap one that will fit inside the case : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814487052
I looked at your config and I have some advice:
Don't spend any money on AMD stuff right now. Their stuff is so old as to be a joke. Also spending 25% of your budget on a case doesn't make sense for such a low end budget build. There are plenty of cheaper cases.
I did a little craigslist searching for your area and Found some cheap shit that you could use to test and learn about Linux with.
You could probably offer this guy $50 or less and he's take it. Core2Duo 4GB RAM
http://asheville.craigslist.org/sys/5706343487.html
Athlon X2 3GB RAM, 300GB HD. Offer him $50 or less
http://asheville.craigslist.org/sys/5715934390.html
This one is a little beefier: Phenom II x6 with 8GB and a 6850. Offer the guy $150 or less.
http://asheville.craigslist.org/sys/5710510148.html
This guy has a bunch of stuff for sale cheap. You could probably get one of those little Dells for like $20.
http://asheville.craigslist.org/sys/5686969485.html
I think this Lenovo Yoga has at least 4GB RAM and is probably not badly priced. Maybe offer $120
http://asheville.craigslist.org/sys/5668883343.html
Maybe it's not worth mentioning this computer. I bet the only thing wrong with it is screwed up drivers. It probably doesn't have much RAM but it could be cheap. Offer $20
http://asheville.craigslist.org/sys/5640300773.html
Just go cheap for your first Linux system. Support generally gets better with age. This is just a system to learn on, so you don't need anything fancy or new.
The best build you have up there seems to be the Phenom II, but then you start the thread by telling him not to buy an AMD related product and you list 2 AMD products on your recommendations.
Also first you say AMD stuff is so old its not worth buying then you recommend really old shit for him to buy some of which even on the intel side like the Core 2 is nearly a decade old..
An APU build for his budget would give him a better experience overall than some of the stuff you have listed and he could buy new items that reduce the risk of any issues down the line from lets say a second hand pc and he gets a relatively decent architecture in modern APU's that still give relatively decent performance per dollar.
APU Quadcore > Core2 duo and Athlon X2
His budget is sufficient enough he does not need to look for the absolute cheapest thing, although for a linux box I do understand what you are saying about just getting an older machine and using linux on it, but he will get more life out of the PC with more modern parts.
The best ones I listed were the cheapest. He's just dipping his toes into Linux - he should spend as little as possible. I originally recommended that he just run a VM and spend the money on extra RAM.
I listed several options based on what I found in his area. Some were spec'd higher than others. Some had AMD. But across the board, they were all significantly cheaper.
If all you want to do is try Linux, just run a VM. But if you really need a physical box, that $50 Dell would do the trick just fine. Don't like it? Sell it and be whole. But if he buys a new system, he will take a bigger loss.
Just because you have a budget doesn't mean you have to spend it.
Ok I see your point regarding costs I suppose I was thinking of this more from longevity point of view where if he buys a little newer which he can afford it will last him a bit longer down the road.
I don't know what he has for a CPU in his main rig, but for $250 he could have 64GB of DDR4. Take those drives that he has and load linux on it. CPUs are mostly idle anyway. I think that would be a better system than anything based off a 5 year old AMD architecture. And it would make the main system more usable too.
Carrizo was a 2013 APU .28nm architecture from AMD, it showed a 40% IPC improvement over Piledriver cores from the AM3 cpus which are older architecture you are correct but their new APU's are fairly decent overall and competing on level terms with a core i3.
I'm no AMD hater. I've had 386-40s, K6-2 300's, AthlonXP 1500+, Athlon 64, PhenomII x6. But buying a new system with their stuff in it is pretty dumb.
If @Amissus has even at least an Sandy Bridge CPU, he'd be better off just maxxing out the memory and using his drives for the VM. Save the money and put it toward a new computer at some point in time. If he has a Skylake, then just max out the RAM and have a totally killer system.